Day 32 - Chillicothe to Kirksville - 82 miles

First full day of cycling in Missouri! Thunderstorms forecast so I threw in my rain jacket. Missouri was green and pretty and slightly hilly. The green and pretty stayed much the same, the hills increased.

And the state of the roads - well. The roads are the worst we have cycled on so far. Lots of pothole dodging or just enduring a really bumpy ride. It's like a free massage all day long.

First sag stop we stopped in at the convenience store for some "fizzy pop" as Fiona puts it. She says that is not an English thing, it's just her. So she grabbed a Coke, I grabbed a Pepsi. I've pretty much given up the diet soda and gone full bore. Sugar, caffeine, whatever it takes! ;)

Seems like most properties have a small or sometimes not so small pond or lake on them.

View at the second sag stop. They warned us about ticks. I didn't go walking in the grass. Michelle said when she got to the sag stop it was raining buckets. By the time we got there it was fine. Grabbed some food, enjoyed a break, headed onward.

Did I mention that Missouri is green and pretty and hilly?

And then it started raining so some of us took shelter under the awning of a deserted store. Some just rode on. Honestly I was so drippy from humidity that the rain didn't make a whole lot of difference. I did want to get my phone put in something waterproof though. Didn't really want to wear a rain jacket.

 

I know you can't see it but it was raining. Once it slowed up significantly, I headed out again. I rode on my own and eventually caught up to and passed some of the other riders. As I was coming up behind Patty, two black dogs ran out to chase her. When I came by they just sat and watched. I guess she wore them out or I just didn't look as exciting. Fiona hadn't stopped for the rain so by the time I got to the motel, she had checked in and was researching our lunch options via Google. She located a gyro stop less than two miles away which sounded great. After putting on dry socks and a dry jersey, we hopped on our bikes and took off again. It was located just off campus of Truman University and we got to ride through campus to get there. They had a nice bike lane and it was a fun ride.

Baklava rolls. I didn't know you could get it in rolls! We had dessert first.

The Mediterranean chicken pita was very tasty and worth a short bike ride.

And those days when I let Fiona ride in front of me? I don't follow, I PURSUE! ;)

We had dinner at Colton's which is a steak house. Food was pretty good although the room temperature was pretty chilly. A first - Fiona had sweet potato fries and they came with marshmallow sauce for dipping. Bleh. The fries were good enough but marshmallow?? They had a sheet of paper with a modified menu for our group at each place. Mine quickly became an airplane and spent a little time flying from table to table. After dinner we played some tic-tac-toe and hangman on the back of someone else's while waiting for things to finish up. Not a bad dinner. Good food and good conversation. :)

I was noticing as I was finishing up the ride today that sometimes those last five miles are the toughest. Somehow mentally, it seems like I think "I only have five miles to go!" Which is true but there is no reason those five miles should be any easier than any five miles of the whole day. They could be hillier, they could be hotter, they could be windier but somehow in my head because it's only five miles, it should fly by. Sometimes it does, sometimes it does not. Oh well, they went, I arrived, I got fed, life is good! :)

One of the local attractions is Thousand Hill State Park. We decided we'd had enough hills for one day! The challenge is to go downhill hard enough that you can crest over the next hill without too much effort. Sometimes I hit them pretty good and it was fun but it was still hard work. My quads were telling me they'd done enough for one day.